Cove Realty, Deborah A Conklin, Property Manager Dirty and shabby furnished water bug infested beach rental cottage at Nags Head NC Nags Head North Carolina

My question is, if you saw bugs the day you checked-in on Sunday but did not report anything to the company untill Tuesday, why did you wait that long to report it if your families safety was so important as you mention in this report? Why would you stay the entire time (a week I presume) if you believed the home wasn't in the condition you expected it to be?

Elliott and his family checked in on Sunday, 21 July at 3:40 PM. In Elliott's complaint, he states "When we arrived, the house was dirty, and furnishing shabby, clearly unexpected. The screens are ripped and therefore we could not open windows for the clean open breeze".  Aside from the bug issue and smoke detectors, this is the first we have ever been told that the cottage was dirty or damaged.  Our cleaners, inspectors, past and present tenants have also never mentioned or reported these other issues.  Cove's policy is to handle all matters quickly and efficiently, if we had been told the cottage was dirty upon check-in, cleaners would have promptly been sent back out to take care of the issues and repairs would have been made.  However, the several Emails and phone calls we received from the Glover family never mentioned these issues once.

In response to the smoke detectors, we were informed these were not working on Wednesday and our repairman came out that same day and got them fixed.  Later on that same day, we received a call from the town fire chief who informed us that Mr. Glover had complained about the smoke detectors.  We informed the chief that we had already fixed the problem.  The chief said he would follow up with Elliot and would call us back only if there was any further problem.  There was no call back from the fire marshall.

As to the bug issue, we agree that this is a very big deal and we understand the concern any family would have upon checking into a property only to find bugs inside.  However, the severity of "infestation" as described in the complaint is drastically different than what was reported to us and findings of the professional bug exterminator we hired to treat and spray the home.

The first phone call from Mr. Glover came into Cove via phone call on Tuesday, 23 July around 9:30 AM.  Mr. Glover spoke to Ed at this time and explained to Ed that he found bugs in the property and was up until 3am on Monday trying to calm his daughter due to her finding one.  After this phone call, Ed immediately made arrangements for a professional exterminator to examine the property and resolve this issue. The exterminator sprayed and treated the cottage Tuesday afternoon, and reported to us that several water bugs were found, but there was no evidence of any type of infestation. The exterminator also informed us that he explained to Elliott that it would take some time for all the bugs to die off, "usually within a day or two."

The following business day at opening office hours, an Email to Cove was read which was written at 8:34PM of the previous night.  This Email told the same story of what was told to Ed over the phone and explained that the exterminator came, treated the property, and talked with Mr. Glover.  Mr. Glover attached a photo of bugs he found which were placed in a plastic baggy and also a short video of a bug dying.

A few hours later (Wednesday, 24 July), Elliott shows up at the office. He brought in the baggy he attatched in the Email which contained about six water bugs. He was asked if there were any live ones left, and he said that he had killed a dying roach himself that morning, but no other live bugs had been found. This was also the time that he informed us of the smoke detectors, which as previously mentioned, was immediately taken care of.  After Elliot left, Amina (a reservationist) called up the professional exterminator and asked a representative for the company to go back to the property and check again for an infestation.  When Brendon (the original exterminator who sprayed the cottage) talked to Elliot, he again explained that dead bugs would be found for the next few days but there was no infestation.  Mr. Glover explained to Brendon that he thought some sort of preventative spray should have been done to the property prior to their check-in, however, Brendon told Elliot that if there is no history or reports of bug problems, sprays are not typically done.

On Thursday morning, July 25, the property manager (Debbie) called the Glover family and spoke to Mrs. Glover.  Debbie apologized for the pest problem, and informed Mrs. Glover that this is an unusual problem in this cottage, as there had not been any previous complaints. In addition, bathroom flooring had been replaced in the Spring, and there were no reports from the contractor about bugs. Debbie also explained that she talked to the owner of this property and that the owner would give a $150 rebate for the Glover family's inconvenience.  Mrs. Glover told Debbie that she would speak to her husband and see how he felt about the refund.

A follow up E-mail ensued on Thursday evening at 6:45, July 25 from Elliott, now requesting a full refund, along with multiple threats to file a lawsuit, file complaints with the Better Business Bureau, and other consumer agencies. Mr. Glover never desired to be moved, or check-out early, but only that he should be entitled to all his money back and also stay at the property for free for the remainder of this week.  This Email was received and read on Friday morning.  Debbie wrote back the same day stating that since they remained and used this property for the entire week and that the smoke detectors and bug spray were performed immediately upon being reported, the $150 refund was all Cove could do.

We here at Cove understand the concern that this family had and are truly sorry for the bug issue.  However, we feel that we handled this issue accordingly and to the best of our abilities.  An entire refund for a customer that used and stayed in a property for an entire week is just not possible.  And lastly, neither from the check-out cleaners, inspector, or current tenants in the property have we heard any complaints of live water bugs or other issues.